Mahfouz’s Film Legacy Discussed at Azhar Museum

The legacy of Naguib Mahfouz, both as a literary icon and a cinematic influence, continues to inspire scholars and cinephiles alike.

Recently, the Naguib Mahfouz Museum in Al-Azhar hosted a captivating seminar delving into the intricate relationship between his literature and its cinematic adaptations.

The event spotlighted “Naguib Mahfouz’s Cinema: Professional Witnesses of the 1970s”, a book by renowned author and researcher Amal El-Gamal.

The discussion was enriched by the participation of prominent intellectuals, including journalist and critic Sayed Mahmoud, writer Mohamed Baghdadi, Anas El-Wogood Radwan, novelist Yasmin Nassar, and journalist Dina Kabeel.

The seminar was moderated by Tarek El-Taher, a journalist overseeing the museum's operations.

Amal El-Gamal, a celebrated critic with 14 published works in cinematic and literary critique, brings her expertise in comparative studies to this book.

Her accolades include the Writers' Union Award for Criticism for “Transcending Genre Cinema: Defining and Describing the Boundaries” and the Abdel Hai Adib Screenplay Award from the Alexandria Film Festival for her script “The Network”.

The featured book, published by Dar Al-Maraya, examines the critical reception of Naguib Mahfouz's cinema during the 1970s.

It explores how that era's critics—many of whom became titans of Egyptian cinematic critique—interpreted and analyzed the adaptations of Mahfouz's works, shedding light on the cultural and artistic transformations of the period.

Contributed by Israa Farhan